Troll smelling Christian blood starts another fight

Town divided by statue of ‘evil.’

In the middle of South Jutland lies the town of Vejen, with a population of some 10,000. It was once home to sculptor Niels Hansen Jacobsen (1861-1941), around whose works the town’s art museum is based. His most famous work is a bronze statue of a Troll Smelling Christian Blood (1896), based on the Nordic myth in which the hero hides in the troll's castle. Whenever the troll enters the castle, he cries: "I smell Christian blood!"

The statue was bought by the son of the famous Carlsberg owner, Carl Jacobsen, and placed in front of Jesus Church in Valby, Copenhagen. It represents the evil of the world, reaching out its arm to grab churchgoers. But Christian protests were so great that the statue was removed to the Glyptotek Museum. Protests against the protest resulted in a copy of the bronze nevertheless being re-erected next to Valby Church, where it remains to this day.

Troll Park
In 1923 a second copy was made for the fountain of toads and lizards in Vejen – and this is where the story really begins, or rather the repeat of the first episode! For the people of Vejen have grown quite fond of their ugly troll, indeed they have constructed a ‘Troll Park’ with a playground and an enclosure with goats and deer, while various businesses use the troll as part of their logo. And Vejen Town Council has now been asked to decorate (and brand!) the new 8-storey mid-town building with the outline of the infamous troll on a white facade.
And again the Christians are protesting, including chair of the Home Mission Society in Vejen, Mona Dahl Nielsen, who finds the decoration ‘unsuitable’. Pastor Svend Løbner agrees. “The troll stands in front of the town museum and that’s where it belongs. It’s a strange idea to want to make it the town’s symbol and part of its identity.”

Council stand firm
And so far the Town Council have taken the protestors’ side. “The troll has been taken out of the plan,” says Jan Laursen for the council, “and there is no way it’s coming back.”

But other pro-troll Christians are calling for a re-think. Thomas Bjerg Mikkelsen, general secretary of Home Mission and Birgitte Stoklund Larsen, leader of the Grundtvig Academy, think it paradoxical that Christian groups reject the idea. “The troll is a reminder of the existence of evil, as we can see from its first positioning outside Jesus Church in Valby,” they say. “Christians ought to be strong enough to take it in their stride.”

 

The last word in this round goes to restaurant owner, Allan Lavenblad, a pro-troller. ”I want it back on the town plan. That’s democracy, and in the end it’s the town council who decide.”

 

Photo: sxc.hu

By: Edward Broadbridge

---